Sorry for all these new topics, I really have multiple questions. Does the Electrolux Trilobite have real mapping or is it like the Roomba, but it doesn't touch the walls? It looks like to me that it is random, unlike the camera, laser based mapping systems, or the very interesting Friendly Robotics RoboScan mapping. Thanks.

The Trilobite uses random patterns much like the Roomba. When you first start it from the dock it will follow the wall till it gets back around to it's base and then start it's random vacuuming. It will calculate about how long it will need to run based on how long it took it to get around the edge of the room back to it's base. It does have a bumper on the front (like Roomba) but also uses ultrasonic sound to determine when it is close to the wall or object. It does not have any way of mapping a room other than calculating it's run time based on it's initial wall following at the beginning of it's cleaning cycle.

Oh, Ok. I thought it used the beginning perimeter scan to map the room out, then go at certain angles to clean the whole room. Anyways even the Roomba claims to have a mapping system. They even put silly names such as iAdapt, even though it is just a simple random method. Thanks for your answer, Patrick.

Can anyone tell me where to obtain a replacement S1/S2 switch for my Trilobite? Taking it a part for cleaning the spring and cap came off and I now need a new one. I cannot locate any numbers on the switch.

I figure that I'll just throw this out there, but the trilobite has got very accurate mapping, just it can't use it for entire rooms. When the Trilobite is in spot mode every so often it pauses for half a second, the sonar system turns of, then back on again, and the robot continues moving. It also, like the Neato, know the borders of the spot it is cleaning, the difference is that it uses diagonal lines within this area. I'll see if I can get a video up later today, but my hunch is that they couldn't use it to map a whole floorplan due to computing limitations when it was made. If, maybe someone made a petition to show Electrolux that lots of people want it, they might consider making a Trilobite 3.0, but who knows really.

My Trilobite does actually work extremely well in a single, very large room with minimal clutter; I'd agree, it's weakness is limited memory and electronic design, very much limited by the technology of its time (although that hasn't stopped iRobot still churning out the same old product year after year!).

Electrolux nowadays is just a badge slapped onto generic product - gone are the factories that used to design and make stuff (think Detroit... although in the UK they've now built houses on the wasteland where the factories once stood). Even if they still had the in-house expertise lurking in some small corner of their larger re-branding empire, it'd really require a ground-up redesign and I doubt the sales volume or margin would be there to make it profitable (in their terms).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-ShziU4iGYThis kind of shows it, although my camera didn't really pick up the Sonar that well and there is an overload of red...As for what you said about generic products, it's a real shame. I guess Karcher is the only company making proper quality robots these days.

plaroche wrote:I guess Karcher is the only company making proper quality robots these days.

I personally doubt they will for much longer; Distribution & sales have been withdrawn from everywhere on the planet to now just Germany. Prices are now half of what they used to be (I guess to remain competitive with newer entrants) and I'd guess that's only possible because, as the design is now 10 years old, the hefty R&D costs would have long since been recouped. I doubt Karcher plan any successor given the high development costs, the limited market, and the fact that the Chinese are quite happy to knock out a copy of anybody's robot with your name on it for about $50 a piece wholesale (if you buy by the container load). Where is the margin? I suspect that as soon as demand dries up, Karcher will quietly stop re-making the odd batch of RC3000's here and there, as Electrolux did with their Trilobite some time ago.

Besides, Korean manufacturers such as Samsung and LG have far better expertise and complimentary design and manufacturing for their other product lines - screens, cameras, touch sensors etc etc - where costs adapting that exisiting technology to another product is much easier and cheaper. Okay, their robotics haven't yet fully matured, but if they put their minds to it properly...

I'll bet there's at least one Neato that's been ripped to pieces and the technology being copied in both China and Korea as I type...